Not Everyone Knows That the Fear of Anxiety Can Cause It

It can be hard to explain the impact anxiety has on our lives. People think they understand–who hasn’t suffered from a case of nerves on occassion?–but it often hits us in more ways than most people realize.

This video by The Mighty says some of the things that many of us aren’t comfortable saying–like the awful things panic does to our guts (if only it were just butterflies in our stomachs), and the super fun way anxiety can build on itself as we try to stay vigilant to avoid it.

The video shares highlights from a longer list on The Mighty’s website, which includes more relatable insights:

“The guilt is there even when I’m feeling better. I feel such shame and guilt for all of the broken promises, dropped commitments, jobs I had to quit and events I missed. My anxiety is the thief, but I still feel like I’m at fault.”

“It gets boring. I have the same obsessive thoughts and worries over and over. I replay situations in my head for hours. I write lists to try to get things out of my head, over and over. I turn molehills into mountains until I can’t think of anything else. I get hung up on one detail and it’s all I can see for days. It’s boring, it’s repetitive and it’s overwhelming.”

Another thing we could add to the list is the frustration of knowing the anxiety is irrational, but being completely unable to stop it. That, or the way anxiety doesn’t always look like overt panic–sometimes we just seem to be withdrawn when we’re really suffering the most.

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Take This, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit charity that seeks to inform our community about mental health issues, to provide education about mental disorders and mental illness prevention, and to reduce the stigma of mental illness.

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